'12 CX-9 AWD Touring and the EasyCare Gold Extended Warranty - worth it (TC issue)?

[mccasle]

Tremendous experience today at Montrose Mazda in Cleveland. Unfortunately I did not prepare well for the extended warranty protection discussion. Was offered the EasyCare Gold package (Total Care) for $1895. It is for 72 months / 120,000 miles.

Given I had the opportunity to cancel within 30 days, I opted to add it to the pricing and then come to all of you for your thoughts. Our Quest had a number of issues with control arms, timing chain, etc. We probably dropped $1000 on the control arms and the timing chain would have cost us an additional $2000 if we didn't trade it in when we did today. All of this occurred well within the 120,000 mile range.

Given the transfer case issue I am learning about from all of you, does it make sense to keep this coverage or call them back Monday morning and decline? There is the peace of mind this is one of the more reputable extended warranty companies out there.

I am going to call EasyCare when they open Monday to see what they would charge me since I am sure Montrose built in a nice profit on that sale. They didn't push us on anything else during the discussion.

Thoughts?

 

[ceric]

I always say that ext warranty is a personal financial decision.
There is no right or wrong, just like buying medical insurance.
If you have enough money, you don't need medical insureance.

Just know that statitsically you lose money on ext warranty.
Few people have enough problems to make their ext warranty worthwhile.
I had more than 20 issues with my old '98 BMW 540iA, and I barely broke even on my ext warranty.
I don't think CX9 is anywhere nearly as bad.

In the end, it is your call.

BTW, TC issue happens more often to early model years (mostly '07 and '08 AWD).
Later ones are much less likely to have that issue.

 

[HOLOHOLO]

Those finance guys always try to grind you, no matter how smooth they seem.

The mileage is good, but you're only buying 3 "additional" years of coverage, and only for "some" components. The tranny is already covered for 5 years, right? Other problematic systems may be excluded (GPS). Plus, there is a usually a deductible of $100 for each separate repair. Plus, there are maintenance schedule loopholes they can hide in. What if the Cayman Islands parent insurance company goes belly up? Lotsa fine print in those gold plated ext. warranties! You won't like some of it. So take your time and read it carefully.

What actually is being protected for that $1900 plus tax? Maybe less that you think. At close to $700/yr, it's on the high side.

I would read the contract (not brochure) front to back and make notes. Circle lots of stuff, then near the end of the day, get "the guy" on the horn and start to go through all of it,.. take up lot's of his time. (He probably flew over it with a casual wave of his hand while you were there in-person).

Then tell him you are thinking of ditching it and let him offer you $600 off the price and throw in a couple oil changes. They WILL negotiate. Wrap that into the contract (zero financing??) and don't look back.

Hope you have a worry free car experience. And yes, I did buy the extended warranty. ;-)